Dr. Dee Ford

Dee Ford, M.D., MSCR, is a Professor of Medicine and health services researcher whose accomplishments are best summarized as initiating, leading, and evaluating novel programs in the context of highly effective multidisciplinary teams with embedded mentoring for early career professionals. Her research focuses on a variety of issues in critical care and applies methodologies from several scientific disciplines including behavioral science, large archival data analyses, dissemination/implementation science, and health disparities research. She also has extensive experience in health system administrative leadership roles and quality improvement. Dr. Ford received her Bachelor of Science from the University of South Carolina. She received her M.D. from Johns Hopkins University where she also completed internal medicine training. She completed pulmonary and critical care fellowship training at MUSC where she completed a Master of Science in Clinical Research. She has been on faculty at MUSC since 2005.

Dr. Andrew Goodwin

Andy Goodwin, M.D., MSCR, is an Associate Professor of Medicine and physician scientist focused on improving the care of the critically ill. He has expertise in both clinical and translational research on the biology of sepsis and ARDS as well as quantitative analysis of ICU outcomes. He received his Bachelor of Science in Bioengineering from Syracuse University and his M.D. from SUNY Stony Brook. He completed his internal medicine residency training at Massachusetts General Hospital and his pulmonary and critical care fellowship training in the Harvard Combined program. He joined the faculty at MUSC in 2011 where he received a Master of Science in Clinical Research degree and established a robust clinical and translational ICU research program.

Dr. Nandita Nadig

Nandita Nadig, M.D., MSCR, is an Assistant Professor of Medicine, Associate Medical Director of the Tele-ICU and an early career physician scientist. Dr. Nadig earned her Medical Degree from Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences in Bangalore, India. She then completed her Internal medicine training at Mount Auburn Hospital, Harvard Medical School and her Pulmonary and Critical Care Fellowship here at MUSC. She was recruited to be on faculty in 2016 and has most recently completed a Master of Science in Clinical Research degree.

Research Overview

The MUSC research program includes a number of multidisciplinary foci that span the breadth of the translational research spectrum (Figure). In collaboration with basic scientists in the Department of Pathology and Lab Medicine, Dr. Goodwin investigates the causes of endothelial dysfunction in sepsis-related organ failure using both in vitro and in vivo mouse models (T0) as well as the analysis of plasma collected from patients with sepsis and ARDS cared for in MUSC ICUs (T1). Dr. Goodwin and his collaborators seek to translate these findings into novel therapeutics aimed to reduce the vascular permeability associated with sepsis-induced organ failure. He also serves as the site PI for multicenter clinical trials in the ICU including for the NHLBI-funded Prevention and Early Treatment of Acute Lung Injury (PETAL) network(T2).

Dr. Ford similarly serves as a site PI for a NIH-funded clinical trial on surrogate decision-making regarding CPR. In addition, Dr. Ford leads a multidisciplinary research team including physicians, behavioral scientists, health economists, and clinical effectiveness researchers that use mixed methods research to identify barriers and enablers to the implementation of best practices in the ICU (T3). Through this work, she has developed an innovative and interprofessional implementation program called ICU Innovations. The ICU Innovations program works with partner hospitals across South Carolina to facilitate the implementation of ICU best practices while using qualitative and quantitative data collection to explore determinants of successful uptake of these initiatives. Dr. Ford is also the Co-Director of an Implementation Science Core through the South Carolina Clinical & Translational Research Institute (SCTR) which offers research training and support.

Dr. Nadig is an integral part of the ICU Innovations team whose mixed methods research is focused on right sizing care and family centered outcomes. Specifically she is interested in the clinical, financial and psychological impact of inter-hospital transfers on the critically ill and their families (T3). Dr. Nadig is also interested in how coping and resiliency is associated with ICU outcomes and is currently evaluating intervention strategies utilizing telehealth to improve ICU outcomes.

Finally, Dr. Ford serves as the Medical Director of the Tele-ICU program housed in MUSC’s nationally recognized Center for Telehealth. Through her leadership, MUSC was awarded a first-of-its-kind Telehealth Center of Excellence award from the Health Resources and Services Administration. As part of this award, the MUSC ICU research team is leveraging access to “Big Data” from a number of partner institutions in order to examine the impact of telehealth strategies on population health as well as to utilize electronic health record data to inform implementation initiatives (T4).